Page 9 - LESSON NOTES -QUESTION TAGS

▪ You couldn’t do me a favour, could you?

• He is from France, isn't he?
(Your voice goes up when you say isn't he.)

Rules of Question Tags :

1. The sentence and the question tag must be in the same tense.
2. For negative question tag, use the Contracted form of 'helping
verb' and 'not' .E.g didn't, hadn't, won't etc
3. If the Sentence is positive, the question tag must be
negative and vice versa.
4. Always use pronoun in the question tag.

Rule-1: Some words are negative in meaning . For e.g. hardly,
seldom, scarcely, rarely, barely etc. Hence they will take positive
question tag after them.

• E.g.- He hardly does any work, does he?
• He found barely anything to eat , did he?
• He is seldom absent, is he?

Rule-2:If a sentence starts with "There", the question tag will have
"there" in the place of pronoun.

• E.g- There is no water , is there?
• There were no good schools in the town, were there?

Rule-3: Question tag is always made in accordance with the main
part of the sentence.

• E.g- I think, he is right, isn't he? (Here 'I think' is not important and
hence it is not the main part of the sentence".

Rule- 4 : There is no contracted form of 'am not' but 'aren't' is used in
question tag.

• Eg- I am fine, aren't I?

Rule-5 : Each, every, everyone, everybody, no one, nobody,
none are singular and hence will take singular verb/ singular pronoun/
singular adjective with them but their question tag will take plural
verb and plural pronoun.